After the Macklin Mohawks took home the SWHL championship over the weekend, and Kindersley fell to Outlook in the Senior provincial ‘B’ final series, SWHL teams are now done in the 2021-22 hockey season.  

We talked to President Joe Cey about the season, and he said Macklin had a strong series against the five-time defending champion Wilkie Outlaws.  

“They were a team on a mission and they were the better team in the final and took Wilkie out in four games. Nathan Hargrave had a really solid series and really stepped up and showed that he could win a championship in net. And you can see this coming from a few years off, that there's a number of teams that are going to be vying for the top spot in our league,” Cey said. 

Cey said it was wonderful to get senior hockey going again, and hockey period. We are going to be all the stronger for it, he added. 

Moving forward Cey said with the parity in the league, it could be won by almost anyone for years to come. 

“If you look at the parity that we have right now, one through five, it was such a logjam up at the top there. We as a league I was hoping for a provincial championship to come from the Sask West Hockey League, but it's pretty tough out there. Kindersley gave a really good run for it, but to win any of the four divisions right now, you'll follow the D side there, with Kenaston knocking off both Macklin and Edam, that's a pretty solid hockey club.” 

Cey also did not discount any team moving into the 2022-23 season, no matter their record in 2021-22. 

“I sure wouldn't discount Kerrobert right now. Brad Murphy’s got a good group of young guys and the key thing is for guys to stay together and string 2,3,4 years with the same group,” Cey said.  

The league is holding a meeting in early April as Cey explains.   

“We are having a league meeting on Thursday the 7th of April. Hopefully we have all eight teams that we had this year, healthy and ready to go in 2022-23. And it's just so wonderful to get senior hockey going again and hockey period. We're going to be all the stronger for it,” Cey added. 

Cey is already looking forward to next season after holding the first successful one since 2018-19 due to COVID-19. 

“Looking forward to October. Can't come soon enough for me. We've got a real good group of men and women that make things run pretty smoothly in the Sask West Hockey League, so looking forward to just continuing to improve the product. And personally, I would like to see one or two provincial championships coming from our league every year, and I think that's just around the corner.”